Major Hasan Dined with 'Jihad Hobbyist'

A photo uploaded to Duane Reasoner's online "photobucket" account is a violent image of Osama bin Laden presiding over the White House on fire.

ABC News

Ever since he told a British reporter that he felt "no pity" for the victims of the Fort Hood massacre, Duane Reasoner Jr., an 18-year-old Muslim convert who frequently dined with accused shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan and attended the same mosque, has ducked the media. His parents ordered ABC News off their property over the weekend and on Monday, Reasoner again dodged ABC -- this time by using a pass to drive onto the Fort Hood Army base, home of the soldiers for whom he said he felt no pity.

For the most part, Reasoner has stayed close to the one-story Copperas Cove, Texas house he shares with his parents, who have reportedly worked on the base and who, according to a friend of Reasoner's, are "not particularly supportive" of the faith adopted by their son.

But while Reasoner may not be making himself available in person, his presence on the Web is unmistakable. During the past two years, Reasoner has shown a marked interest in jihadi Web content and videos of figures associated with al Qaeda, including Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Anwar al Awlaki, the radical Yemeni-American cleric and al-Qaeda recruiter who exchanged e-mails with Major Hasan and told the Washington Post he considered himself Hasan's confidant.

According to terrorism expert Jarret Brachman, Reasoner appears to be a classic example of a "jihad hobbyist," one of a group of young, online obsessives who radicalize themselves by ingesting hardcore jihadist Web content, from YouTube videos to discussion forums.

"They make hating America, hating the West, their hobby," said Brachman, author of "Global Jihadism" and former research director of the West Point-based Combating Terrorism Center.

Brachman said these "Ji-hobbyists," as he dubbed them, nearly always confine their jihadism to the Web and that a "Ji-hobbyist" who becomes operational -- who commits a violent act -- is an anomaly.

But when it does happen, said Brachman, "They are celebrated." When Kuwaiti Bader al-Harbi went to Iraq and blew himself up, it thrilled his fellow online jihadis. "The posters were all freaking out because he had been one of them."

'Ji-Hobbyists' Thrive Online, Said Terrorism Expert

For Western youth who are attracted to jihadism, said Brachman, the Internet is a way to work out the contradictions between the culture in which they were raised and the demands of religious fundamentalism. "The only way they can reconcile that is through posting and externalizing the process." One jihadi who started by working out his opinions and his reasons for conversion in public postings was Adam Gadahn, an American convert who is now a media advisor to al-Qaeda.

"I've tracked the trajectory of kids," explained Brachman. "They're dabbling in lighter stuff, then harder stuff. Their appetite for blood grows over time. As they understand the set of grievances that drive the ideology, they fall into It deeper and deeper."

In March of 2007, Reasoner created a YouTube account under the name "ooklepookle." He has used the handle on other accounts as well, but they can always be traced back to Duane Reasoner Jr. or another name he has used, Duane Edwards.